


I'll remember to miss you

by robin_the_robo



Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Gen, Memory Loss, a hint of Vivi/Arthur, also a hint of Lewis/Arthur, i just really ship the three of them but they're not quite there yet, past (and possibly future) Lewis/Vivi, somewhat introspective: vivi reflects on her missing memories, vivi doesn't regain her memories after lewis is reunited with the gang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:07:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27780481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robin_the_robo/pseuds/robin_the_robo
Summary: "Vivi loved doing researches, and she loved solving mysteries.That’s what annoyed her the most about her selective amnesia, that she just couldn’t solve it by putting together some clues and reaching a logical conclusion. It was infuriating."For months Vivi had to deal with everyone she knows talking about how sorry they were about this supposedly too-good-to-be-true boyfriend she had mysteriously lost, and whom she does not remember... but when Lewis is finally back with them, Vivi has to come to terms with the bitterness she has been feeling towards her idea of him.
Relationships: Arthur & Lewis & Vivi (Mystery Skulls Animated)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 47





	I'll remember to miss you

Vivi loved doing researches, and she loved solving mysteries.  
That’s what annoyed her the most about her selective amnesia, that she just couldn’t solve it by putting together some clues and reaching a logical conclusion. It was infuriating.

For months Vivi had had to deal with everyone she knew talking about how sorry they were about this supposedly too-good-to-be-true boyfriend she had mysteriously lost, and Arthur had been obsessed with finding him, so much so that his uncle Lance had had to force him to take some time to recover after the accident, or he would’ve just left the hospital and gone straight for his desperate mission to look all around Texas for this guy who had just vanished all of a sudden.

“If Lewis is still missing then he’s got to be in trouble. He would never abandon us or his family” She remembered Arthur saying while he worked on his second arm prototype “I just have to find him, Vivi. He would’ve done the same for us”.

Vivi had been particularly annoyed that afternoon. She had known even at the time that it wasn’t really anyone’s fault but Lewis’ shadow got oppressive sometimes, and it had made her dislike him on principle.

“Are you sure he wasn’t your boyfriend? You sound like you’re really into him” Vivi teased, propping her chin up with both hands. Arthur had gotten red and had started stammering.

“Vivi! How can you- I’m not-! He’s my best friend, okay? Our best friend. You‘d look for me if I went missing, right?”

“Of course I would!” She sighed “I guess you’re right. It just feels weird not knowing who’s this person that we’re so invested in finding. Especially when everyone tells me I should be”

Arthur had given her a melancholic smile “Hey, the most important thing right now is that we still have each other. We can get to the bottom of this together” 

She had smiled back. It was true, they had each other. And she was incredibly thankful for his friendship. Lewis’ heavy shadow hadn’t left her, but she trusted Arthur. Of course she would go with him.

Things had gotten simultaneously better and worse once Arthur had recovered enough for them to hit the road. On one hand, Vivi didn’t have to deal with her room full of reminders of a stranger, nor with people mentioning him and making her feel like she was a bad person because she wasn’t grieving for him.  
On the other hand, though, every time they solved a new case without finding any trace of Lewis she could see just how disappointed Arthur was. 

And as much as Lewis was pushing them together, making Arthur willing to go on any sort of adventure that could get them more information on where their missing friend was, or at least on where he wasn’t, it also kept them apart. 

Vivi liked Arthur. A lot. And she just couldn’t imagine being with someone else when he was an option. She had made some moves on him since they had started going on their very frequent trips after the accident. Arthur seemed to be doing his best not to catch on, but she knew he couldn’t be that oblivious.

They had stopped at a diner-motel on the road once, since there had been no place where they could park the van safely enough to sleep in it. They had taken advantage of the opportunity by eating something better than their sandwiches and getting a bit tipsy.  
Then, after a couple of hours of joking and chatting idly while standing on Vivi’s bed, Arthur had stretched and declared that they should probably go to sleep.

As the young man had been about to get up, Vivi had grabbed his arm. 

“You don’t need to go to the other bed, we sleep just as close when we’re in the van!”

Arthur had chuckled awkwardly “I’m sure you’ll enjoy the extra space tonight, then?”

Vivi had let go of his arm, opting to hold his hand instead “I would enjoy your company more. Come on, you know I get cold super easily!”

He had remained silent, looking everywhere but at her. He had been clearly feeling conflicted.

“We aren’t doing anything wrong” she had insisted 

“But Lewis-“

Vivi had let out an exasperated groan and let herself fall backward on the bed with her arms spread out.

“I’m starting to really hate this Lewis”

“Vivi!”

“I know, I’m sorry. I’m just tired of someone I don’t know dictating what’s going on in my life” she had sat back up and inched closer to him “He’s not here. And you are” 

Arthur had gotten up and moved away “Let’s just go to sleep”.

Everything had changed once they had actually found Lewis. Or, more accurately, Lewis’ ghost.  
If people hadn’t been lying to her about him (and why would they? She trusted her friends and family) then death had really changed him: he lost his temper easily, which often resulted in something burning, and he was all around pretty defensive. 

That was not all there was to him, though. The sensitive and passionate person that everyone had told her about was clearly still in there. He was doing his best to forgive Arthur now that he knew that his death hadn’t been his fault, and she could see he clearly cared about them.  
He was fiercely protective of her in particular, which was flattering and did give her plenty of chances to see one of the most interesting ghosts she’d ever seen from up close, but she did end up having to remind him that to her, he was a stranger. And a very unstable one at that.

He’d been spending more time by himself since then. Perhaps she had offended him a bit, but she knew establishing boundaries was important.  
This would be the first time she would actively go to him alone, especially to ask about something other than ghost-related topics. 

Vivi kneeled down to fetch a massive cardboard box that stood by the foot of her bed. She hadn’t seen the things inside of it since she had moved to this house with Arthur, and she wasn’t particularly looking forward to seeing them again either. She was too curious to just let it go, though. And too tired of just not knowing.

She pushed the box out of her room and then began lifting it up the stairs to the attic one step at a time. They did have another room next to theirs for him, Arthur had made sure of that when the two of them had gotten this house, but Lewis just seemed to prefer the attic, so they had brought up there all the furniture from that third room. It was still a bit impersonal since all his belongings were still at his parents’ house, but until they found a way to break the news to them about his new “condition” it would have to do.

“Knock knock!” Vivi exclaimed once she reached the top of the stairs, where the attic’s door stood.

**“Yes?”** Lewis’ voice sounded like it was going directly inside her mind instead of going through the door. It was fascinating.

“No, you need to say ‘who’s there?’”

There was silence for a second, then the ghostly voice relented:

**“…who’s there?”**

“Boo”

A resigned, echo-y sigh **“Boo who?”**

“Oh no don’t cry, I’m just here to talk!” 

The door creaked open by itself. Lewis was floating a few inches above the bed, looking at the afternoon sky through the roof window above him, but he sat down on the bed once she came in.

**“Hi”** he glanced at the box that she was struggling to lift up the last step and into the room **“Need help with that?”**

“Yes please” 

The box started floating and she let it go. It flew over her head and landed gently next to the bed.

“Thanks” she sat on the bed, but left some space between them “I had a favor to ask” 

**“I know. That’s the only reason you have for talking to me since I came back”**

That was surprising. Lewis had been considerably nicer to her than he was to other people, so she had not been expecting this in the slightest. 

“That’s not true” she said, more by reflex than because she could actually defend her stance. Although Lewis couldn’t do much in the way of facial expressions now, she could tell he was giving her a bitter look.

**“You know, I feel sorry for all the ghosts and creatures we’ve encountered in the last few years now, because you’re treating me just like them and I can assure you it does not feel good”**

“I don’t-“

**“You’re so obsessed with the supernatural that you forget that there’s more to us, to me, than the fact that I can walk through walls! I’m still a person!”**

“Well maybe if you acted like one it would be easier for me to remember that!” 

They stared at each other in stunned silence for a second. The magenta fire that had begun engulfing Lewis’ skull receded back into the shape of his hair, and thick black tears threatened to spill out of his eye sockets.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t actually mean that” Vivi wiped away some tears of her own from under her glasses “This is the opposite of why I had come up here in the first place” 

Another beat of silence, then Lewis gave a little tap to the box with the side of his foot 

**“So what’s in there?”**

“Stuff from my old room. Mainly photos” she looked at it like it was going to jump at her and eat her alive. She was relieved by the change of subject, though. “I haven’t looked at them in a while, actually”

**“Why? Afraid you’d remember me?”**

This was clearly just him trying to get a rise out of her because he was upset, so she didn’t take the bait.

“I wished!” She sighed dramatically “Look. Arthur told me about how close you and I were. So did literally everyone I know, but… to me, you’re a stranger. And it hurt seeing those pictures of us together without any context, without any memories of it”

**“So you’re here for… context?”**

“Yes! I want you to share your memories with me. Maybe since you were actually there this could help me remember!”

Lewis lifted up the box and placed it on the bed between the two of them, then he ripped off the tape and opened it.  
Vivi had only seen him assume his more human-looking form when they had gone out in public and once while he was busy cooking, so she was taken off guard when she looked up from the box to find Lewis smiling softly while holding a picture. She decided not to point it out in case he hadn’t done it on purpose.

**“I love this one”** Lewis chuckled. He showed her a photo of the three of them sitting on what Vivi recognized as the couch at her parent’s house, Lewis and Arthur looking horrified as she grinned from ear to ear **“You had invited us to your house for a movie night. We found out too late what kind of movies we were going to be watching. You kept insisting that The Ring ‘isn’t even that scary, you guys!’”**

Vivi chuckled. This sounded exactly like something she would do. She could even kind of remember that afternoon, except in her fuzzy memories it had been just her and Arthur  
“How old were we?” 

**“This was about a year after we met, so we would’ve been fourteen and you were sixteen. As a kid I was so surprised you cared to hang out with someone younger than you, I thought you were the coolest person alive”** Lewis focused on rummaging through the box to avoid her eyes **“My opinion hasn’t changed, by the way”**

“Lewis-“

**“I know, I know. I won’t be creepy about it”**

“No, I meant… you’re cool too. I want to get to know you again” 

Lewis smiled. He looked so incredibly relieved by those two short sentences.

**“I just want you to know that I’m not- I don’t expect things to go back exactly to the way they were. I just hope we can be friends again”**

“Thank you” Vivi said earnestly. This whole time everyone had acted like she was a young wife having to stay loyal to her husband while she waited for him to come back from the war, but she had no idea who she had even been waiting for, and there was no way she would just get together with someone she didn’t even remember. Hearing that he didn’t expect that from her either was reassuring.  
On the other hand, damn right he didn’t expect that! She was pretty sure that she would’ve never ended up with someone who could’ve thought otherwise.

“Well, while we’re here… how about you explain these to me?" Vivi lifted two small handmade plushies, a magenta alpaca and a blue turtle with one paw and one flipper sewn together like they were holding hands. They were pretty lopsided.

**"Did my parents give them to you?"**

"Yes, they said you would've wanted me to have them" 

**"Ugh. It was a... sewing attempt. I wanted to make our favorite animals in our colors but I didn't like how they came out, so I never gave them to you"**

"You should've, they’re… cute"

**"You don't need to lie"**

"Okay, they're super asymmetrical, but I'm sure I would've appreciated the thought" 

**"After roasting me"**

"Okay, yes, you're probably right" 

Lewis gestured as to say he had proved his point, putting on a dramatically wounded expression, and Vivi just had to laugh, which made Lewis follow suit. It was the first time she had seen him laugh since they had been reunited. She found herself hoping it would happen more often in the future.

They spent the rest of the afternoon going through the contents of the box, and when Arthur came back home he found them on the floor, pictures and objects scattered everywhere, as they energetically debated a videogame mechanic. Vivi could tell he was happy they were getting along again.  
They all knew things weren't quite back to the way they were, and maybe they would never be, but it didn't matter: there were more memories to be made, and this was just the first step.

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't posted a fanfic in years and I just wanted to say... it's good to be back :)  
> I would've never imagined my comeback was going to happen with this fandom, I thought I was gonna go for a bigger one, but I'm actually happy it was this one. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed my story, come check out my Tumblr @robin-the-robo if you want :)


End file.
